500 Mr. F. Smith's Descriptions of 



Paper, I was supplied with ten examples of each ; tliree species 

 consisted entirely of males, one species partly of males and 

 workers, and the remainder entirely of workers. 



Of the genus Tngona I have never seen a female, neither has 

 any one described that sex, but I have little doubt it will be found, 

 as in the genus Melipona, that each community contains a number 

 of females. x4.ccoiding to the observation of naturalists, the nests 

 of Trigona contain an immense host of individuals ; Mr. Stretch, 

 who collected at Panama, found a nest several feet in length, 

 in the hollow of a tree, containing thousands of individuals, their 

 numbers being, as he informed me, apparently countless. 



Judging from the information we possess of the economy of 

 these genera, it would appear that it is analogous to that of the 

 social Formicidce, whose communities always contain numerous 

 females at the same time. 



The females of the genus Melipona resemble the queen of the 

 hive, in having much shorter wings than the workers, and also in 

 having the abdomen elongate. 



The nests of these bees are not only found in very different 

 situations, but are also constructed of very different materials; 

 this I should have concluded must be the case, from the very dif- 

 ferent construction of the mandibles in the various species ; 

 some have the inner edge of the mandibles finely denticulate, 

 others, on the contrary, with only four or five strong teeth, 

 whilst in some species we find them perfectly smooth, or eden- 

 tate. 



Gardner, in his travels, gives a list of such species as he met 

 with in the provinces of Piauhy and Goyaz, where he found them 

 numerous ; in every house, he says, you find the honey of these 

 bees : many species, he tells us, build in the hollow trunks of 

 trees, others in banks ; some suspend their nests from the 

 branches of trees, whilst one species constructs its nest of clay, 

 it being of a large size ; the honey of this species, he says, is very 

 good. 



Mr. H. W, Bates ofien observed these bees collecting clay, 

 which they plaster on their broad flat posterior tibiae ; for some 

 time he was at a loss to ascertain the use made of it, but he sub- 

 sequently observed that it was the material with which they wall 

 up any large opening in decaying trees, leaving only an outlet ne- 

 cessary for their entrance into and exit from the hive. Gardner 

 informs us, that some species close these entrances with wax, this 

 being the habit of a species named Tuhy ; another, that he calls 

 Atakira, closes it with clay ; he also speaks of another, named 



